Глава 1 · Карта сцен

EN ¶1: LATER than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof. In his dream these had been carrier pigeons from someplace far across the ocean, landing and taking off again one by one, each bearing a message for him, but none of whom, light pulsing in their wings, he could ever quite get to in time.

RU ¶1: Одним летним утром 1984 года, позже обычного, Зойд Уилер выплыл из сна в солнечный свет, сочившийся сквозь ползучий фикус, что завешивал окно, а по крыше тем временем топотала эскадрилья голубых соек.

EN ¶2: On the table in the kitchen, next to the Count Chocula box, which turned out to be empty, he found a note from Prairie. 'Dad, they changed my shift again, so I rode in with Thapsia. You got a call from Channel 86, they said urgent...'

EN ¶7: Desmond was out on the porch, hanging around his dish, which was always empty because of the blue jays who came screaming down out of the redwoods and carried off the food in it piece by piece.

EN ¶8: Zoyd headed down to Vineland Mall and rolled around the lot there for a while, smoking up half a joint he'd found in his pocket, before parking the rig and going into More Is Less, a discount store for larger women...

EN ¶9: He sure would, but only after spending more time out on 101 than his already fragile sense of humor could take, owing to a convoy of out-of-state Winnebagos on some leisurely tour of the redwoods.

EN ¶20: It was well into lunchtime when he got to the Log Jam, and he was disappointed to find nobody at all from the media, just a collection of upscale machinery parked in the lot... Dangerous men with coarsened attitudes, especially toward death, were perched around lightly on designer barstools, sipping kiwi mimosas.

EN ¶22: The already confused Zoyd... decided to produce the chain saw from his bag. It was a tailor-made lady's chain saw, 'tough enough for timber,' as the commercials said, 'but petite enough for a purse.' The guide bar, handle grips, and housing were faced in genuine mother-of-pearl, and spelled out in rhinestones on the bar... was the name... CHERYL.

EN ¶26: Buster, imperturbable, though his eyes were now fixed on the hand on the leg... guiding by strange jovial magnetism a logger's hand... 'You will have a long life, because of your common sense and grasp on reality. Five bucks.'

EN ¶44: 'Got six mobile TV units waiting, network up from the City, plus paramedics and a snack truck, all wonderin' where you are.'... Zoyd hung up, put the saw back in the bag, finished his beer, and made his exit, blowing broad show-biz kisses.

EN ¶52: The Cucumber Lounge property extended back from the disreputable neon roadhouse itself into a few acres of virgin redwood grove. Dwarfed and overshadowed by the towering dim red trunks...

EN ¶53: Today it was enjoying a visit from the media, plus a task force of cop vehicles, state and county, flashing their lights and playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens. Mobile units, lights, cable, crews everywhere, even a couple of Bay Area stations.

EN ¶54: Zoyd went sweaty and had one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear. Was it ESP, was he only reacting to something in his friend's voice? Somehow he knew who it would be.

EN ¶58: 'Love your outfit, Wheeler.' Zoyd reached, bomb-squad careful, to pat Hector's stomach. 'Look like you been moving the mustache there a little, old amigo.'

EN ¶71: Zoyd eyeballed himself in the mirror behind the bar, gave his hair a shake, turned, poised, then screaming ran empty-minded at the window and went crashing through.

EN ¶73: After obligingly charging at each of the news cameras while making insane faces... Zoyd caught sight of Hector squatting in front of the destroyed wind... But Hector had already vanished into a large gray sedan with government plates.